Dharamsala, July 20 – The Chinese authorities in Mangra County have declared void the exam papers of Tibetan students who wrote a teachers selection test in Tibetan language, sources told the Voice of Tibet radio. There was no prior announcement about it except for a last minute notice given in the exam hall, the VOT reported.

The exile Tibetan government’s website today said that “such incidents add to the growing concerns among the Tibetan people regarding China's policy of marginalisation of Tibet's traditional language by strongly propagating the use of Chinese language.”

Around 100 college graduates including many Tibetans have appeared in the selection test carried out on July 14, sources said. The test was conducted by the county's Personnel and Organisational Departments. The students who appeared in the test asked the authorities why Tibetan language was not allowed as a medium of answering the selection test for teachers of schools with both Tibetan and Chinese languages as the mediums of instruction. The authorities responded that the people who would be checking the papers were Chinese from Xining who did not understand Tibetan, a source told the radio service based here.

The curriculum of the written test included Communist Party of China's “Three Represents”, last year's Sichuan earth quake and other issues concerning the dissemination of political propaganda of the Chinese government, the official website of the Tibetan exile government said. The invigilators for the test were Dorjee Wanchen from the personnel department, and Lhundup and Kharjam Gyal from the organisational department, it said, citing sources.

Out of the thirteen students selected for the posts only 2 were Tibetans, sources said. The population of Mangra county is 65974 with the percentage of Tibetans being 74.3.

Meanwhile, another test for selection of teachers for primary school was conducted on July 16 though no announcement was made that only Chinese language must be used. Out of around hundred students who appeared in the test only twenty were selected but it is not known how many were Tibetans.